A HISTORIAN is appealing to a vanishing and unique generation of Asians to record their memories before they die with their secrets.

A HISTORIAN is appealing to a vanishing and unique generation of Asians to record their memories before they die with their secrets.

Community worker Ibrahim Kala is seeking out veteran Barbodhans - so called because they come from the village of that name near the thriving Indian city of Surat in Gujerat. He wants to record the reminiscences of the first Barbodhans to arrive in Bolton where their children still live in great numbers.

The name comes from the term 'Babul Aden' or Gateway to Aden, so called because hajj pilgrims used to pass through the village and on to the seaport of Surat where they caught ships bound for Saudi Arabia and the holy sites. The place is also known as the Golden Village, a description in stark contrast to the Bolton they experience with its snowy winters and wet smoky summers.

The first arrivals came in the 1950 when Commonwealth citizens could simply walk off the plane at Heathrow and travel to the town to search for work.

As Mr Kala's first short pamphlet 'A History of Barbodhan Muslims living in Bolton in the late 1950s and 1960s' records many found jobs in the textile industry which at that time was still a major employer. They were hard working men who dragged themselves up from poverty to enable their families to join them. Mr Kala quotes Murhoom Ahmed Eusoof Patel who is now dead.

"I accepted a dirty job that no-one else would willingly accept. I worked as a labourer and a cleaner in the cotton mills. "In my job I proved myself useful and my works manager insisted that I bring an unemployed friend to this mill to work like I did. By working this way I realised that my children would not like working this way. If you don't want to drag your children into this kind of job, you must sacrifice yourself to give them a good education."

Life was hard in other ways. It was extremely difficult to prepare halal food and new arrivals often had to live off tinned vegetable until the first halal food stores were established. The first wives felt very isolated too as there were so few Asian women established in the town. But they survived and prospered and now they have recreated an English version of their home village amidst Bolton's terraces.

Mr Kala reports that some Barbodhans who travel back to India now begin to feel homesick of the familiar Bolton landscape. Many of the elders Mr Kala interviewed said they found the English of the 50s and 60s kind and unprejudiced though many report signs on mills in Gugerati and Urdu declaring 'No Vacancies' deliberately put up to keep Asian workers out.

Mr Kala is now attempting to compile a further historical record. If you want to contribute he can be reached on 07866 253 689